Season 5
Season 5 Season five of Miami Vice is the final season of the series. The season premiered on November 4, 1988 with the continuation of the Sonny Burnett story arc with "Hostile Takeover". The season (and the show) concluded on May 21, 1989 after 17 episodes with the series finale "Freefall", though three additional "lost" episodes aired on NBC in the summer of 1989 and one aired in 1990 on USA Network due to its unsuitability for network television. Season five regular cast members included Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, Saundra Santiago, Michael Talbott, Olivia Brown, and Edward James Olmos. Changes and Notes * The season started in November rather than September due to a writers' strike in the spring & summer of 1988, delaying production. * The show changed time slots several times in this season, starting out at its' normal Friday at 10:00 slot until February, 1989, when it moved to 9:00, then the series finale "Freefall" was aired on Sunday at 9:00, and finally moved to Wednesdays at 10:00 for three of the "lost episodes" that aired on NBC after "Freefall". Miami Vice's final NBC broadcast (until 2006) was on July 26, 1989 with a repeat of "Fruit Of The Poison Tree ". * Tim Truman replaces Jan Hammer as the background music producer. The sound is a change from the synth vibes of the previous four seasons, which divides viewers -- some compare it unfavorably to Jan Hammer's, while others feel it fits the darker tone of the season. Despite this, Jan Hammer's intro song was left intact to the show's end. Truman's music has never been commercially released. * Tubbs' hair remains short and his beard disappears shortly after the season starts (although it briefly reappears in "Borrasca", only for him to notably shave it off partway through the episode, indicating that once again the studio changed the season's running order). Crockett's hair is shaggier and gradually reaches its longest length in the series. * The clothing style changes yet again to darker shades of color combinations first seen in Season 1-2, becoming more modern. Crockett also begins occasionally wearing stonewashed blue jeans and/or a denim jacket. * The stories and the language get even more dark and gritty than in previous seasons, and the violence and gunplay is markedly higher than before. The "lost" episode "Too Much, Too Late" is not aired because its plot is considered too extreme for TV (although it was aired the following year). * Dick Wolf leaves the show to focus on his series Law & Order, which would premiere in the fall of 1990, more than a year after Miami Vice left the air, and tied the series Gunsmoke ''for most seasons on air (20, from 1990-2010), spawning five companion shows (three of which are still on air as of 2011). Michael Mann is credited as executive producer (along with Robert Ward and Richard Brams), although it is said his position was more of a figurehead title than anything and he had little involvement with this season. This makes him the only person to be credited as executive producer in every episode of ''Vice. * Stan Switek becomes a far more serious character, and his gambling problems are an underlying plot line throughout the season, coming to a head in the series finale "Freefall". * Very few episodes in this season feature the entire main cast. In fact, the number of episodes that feature Crockett and Tubbs together is not much higher; often Switek serves as a stand-in partner. * The "Sonny Burnett" cliffhanger is resolved, but Crockett has to deal with the consequences, especially his nearly killing Tubbs twice, throughout the early episodes. * The "lost" episode "Leap Of Faith" is a pilot for a potential spin-off, which was not picked up. * Crockett & Tubbs undergo a slow and steady burnout on the job, foreshadowed towards the end of the previous season, culminating in their final showdown in "Freefall". * Several characters from Seasons 1-2 return to close out their storylines, including Al Lombard, Valerie Gordon, and May Ying. * The final season's year-end rating was #64, lowest of all seasons. Critics believed that the show had become tired and was simply going through the motions, occasionally rehashing plotlines from earlier seasons. Another complaint, as stated above, was the reduced screen time for main characters other than Crockett and Tubbs, who likewise were rarely seen together. * NBC turned down an option for two additional Miami Vice ''episodes that would have brought the total for the fifth season to 23 (20 one hour episodes and the two hour finale) * Reruns of Season 5 were broadcast by USA Network (now part of NBC-Universal) in the fall and winter months of 1989, with the final "lost" episode, "Too Much, Too Late", airing on January 25, 1990. Music ''See: Miami Vice Music Season 5 Episodes *† These episodes aired after the series finale, on May 21, 1989 on NBC. *‡ This episode was never shown on NBC due to its graphic content regardling child molestation, and was aired when Miami Vice reruns were broadcast on USA Network. Category:Miami Vice Season 5 Episodes